Research conducted by Curtin University (Australia), Amasya, the world’s next supercontinent (short for America and Asia) will likely form when the Pacific Ocean closes completely, which will happen in 200 or 300 million years. Then, all existing continents will merge a single Earth mass.
Posted in National Science Reviewresearch team used a supercomputer to simulate how a supercontinent formed and discovered that as Earth has cooled for billions of years, the thickness and strength of tectonic plates beneath the oceans have decreased over time, making it harder for the next supercontinent to come together as the “young” oceans closed. Like the Atlantic or the Indian Ocean.
Lead author Dr Chuan Huang, from Curtin’s Earth Dynamics Research Group and School of Earth and Planetary Sciences, said the new findings are important and provide insight into what will happen to Earth in the next 200 million years.
“For the last 2 billion years, Earth’s continents have collided to form a supercontinent every 600 million years.known as the supercontinent cycle. This means that the existing continents will come together again in a few hundred million years,” Huang explained.
“The emerging new supercontinent is already It was named Amasya because it was believed that the Pacific Ocean (as opposed to the Atlantic and Indian Oceans) would close when America collided with Asia.. Australia is also expected to play a role in this major land event, colliding first with Asia and then merging the Americas and Asia as the Pacific Ocean closes.
“By simulating how Earth’s plate tectonics are expected to evolve using a supercomputer, we were able to show that the closing of the Pacific Ocean is likely in less than 300 million years, which allowed Amasya to form, thus discrediting some earlier scientific theories. ” Additional.
The Pacific Ocean is the remnant of the Panthalassa superocean that began to form 700 million years ago. When the previous supercontinent began to break up, it formed the present. It is the oldest ocean we have on Earth and has started to shrink from its maximum size since the time of the dinosaurs. It is currently still shrinking by a few centimeters per year and is expected to take 200 to 300 million years to fully shut down.
Professor Zheng-Xiang Li, also from the Curtin School of Earth and Planetary Sciences, said that dominating the entire world by a single land mass would drastically change the Earth’s ecosystem and environment.
“Earth as we know it will be drastically different when Amasya is formed. Sea levels are expected to be lower and the vast interior of the supercontinent will be very arid with high diurnal temperature ranges.”Professor Li said.
“Right now, Earth is made up of seven continents with very different ecosystems and human cultures, so it would be fascinating to think about what the world will look like in 200 to 300 million years.”
Reference work: https://academic.oup.com/nsr/advance-article/doi/10.1093/nsr/nwac205/6726649?login=false
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